Leela stifled a small yawn and rubbed her eye. Glancing at the chrononometer, she noted that it had been six hours since her last break.
   “Hey red, I’m gonna take a nap. Do you want to take the helm for a bit?”
   Fry’s face lit up. “Sure thing, purple!” he exclaimed. “Take as long as you need!”
   Leela smiled at his enthusiasm. An interstellar spacecraft was just a big toy for him, and while his immaturity was irksome at times, she still couldn’t help but be infected by his playful nature. The way he looked at the Universe with wonder could make her see some of the things she took for granted in a whole new light… humanity’s accomplishments, and the marvels of space; it really was amazing, all of it.
   As Leela moved aside for Fry to sit down, their hands briefly touched, and both felt a momentary tremor of excitement that they each tried to conceal. Fry took the controls and grinned.
   “Just stay the course, kiddo,” Leela told him. “No deviations except in an emergency… and if there is an emergency, I expect you to wake me immediately.”
   “I know the drill, Cap’n.” Fry winked roguishly. “Sweet dreams.”
   Leela left the bridge, her mood lighter than it had been in hours. Despite all the monumental screw-ups and overt idiocy, Phillip J. Fry had an indefinable quality about him that could lighten anyone’s heart when they were feeling down without even trying… especially hers.
   I suppose there’s a reason for that, she thought. Face it Leela, you’re madly in…
   Her train of thought was interrupted as she ran into Bender exiting her quarters. The android stopped and looked at her blankly. Leela glared back.
   “What?” Bender demanded indignantly.
   “Take them off,” she said. “Now.”
   Bender grumbled inaudibly to himself and removed the bra and panties that he was wearing awkwardly on his cylindrical chassis. He threw them at Leela and clumped off.
   “They’re bland and unappealing anyway,” he declared as he disappeared toward the cargo bay.



   Leela looked at the stretched-out undergarments and wondered how long it would take for the residual effects of Bender’s temporary gender-swap to wear off. She went into her quarters and lay down, trying not to think about her impending encounter with the sex-obsessed buffoon. She found it easier and more calming to think about Fry instead.
   Meanwhile in the cargo hold, Hermes Conrad sat at a small folding desk with a sheaf of papers in front of him, busily documenting each uneventful minute of the cargo’s journey. Checking and rechecking that the three crates were still present and noting each creak of the ship’s hull. An official mission from the DOOP was a large-scale event sure to earn him kudos with the Central Bureaucracy… perhaps even a one-point promotion if all went well.
   Hermes looked up from his paperwork and glared in irritation as Bender clumped noisily down the steps muttering to himself.
   “What are ya doin’ down here, ya metal monstrosity?” Hermes growled. “This area’s off-limits to unauthorized personnel for the duration of da mission! If you want t’come down here you need to submit an application for DOOP probationary…”
   “Yeah, yeah, yeah – cram a clam in it, fleshsack,” Bender said. “What the hell is it we’re hauling anyway? Is it porn? I bet it’s porn.” He wanked over to one of the enormous DOOP-stamped crates and set about trying to lever it open.
   “Stop it!!” Hermes shrieked, leaping over the desk to grab Bender’s arms. “Ya clankin’ cacophony of colliding cogs and camshafts! If we tamper with this shipment we’ll be lookin’ at the inside of a DOOP prison!”
   “You mean YOU will be,” Bender retorted. “This haul’s your responsibility, ain’t it?”
   “Well technically yes, but…”
   “Then get your greasy paws of me or I’ll hit you with a shovel.” Bender moved to shove the Jamaican aside, but Hermes held up his hands, spluttering.



   “Alright, alright, alright!” he said. “If you leave this shipment alone I’ll let you have a day off work.”
   “A week!” Bender snapped.
   “Alright a week,” Hermes relented.
   “Two weeks!”
   “Never!”
   “Alright fine, a week. Starting now.” Bender pulled a cigar from his chest compartment, lit it, and blew a cloud of smoke in Hermes’ face. “Bwahahaha! Seeya later, loser!”
   Hermes slumped in relief as the robot meandered away singing to himself. This particular shipment was far too important to allow idiots like Bender and the ice-cube from the stupid ages to gum things up.

Hours passed without incident. Bender found his way onto the bridge and was trying to play rock-paper-scissors with Zoidberg – neither of them had the right shaped hands for the game. Zoidberg continually produced ‘scissors’ even when he wasn’t trying to, while Bender could only make ‘rock’… nevertheless he was on a winning streak.
   Fry took the ship through a number of minor course-corrections and gravity-boosts through manual control, and was proud of himself when nothing exploded.
   Bender had finally tired of his game and sauntered over to Fry.
   “I see eyeball’s been leaving you behind the wheel more often these days,” he observed. “Seems like she trusts you more than she used to. And that’s a trust that can be exploited…”
   “I guess she does,” Fry said happily, tuning out his friend’s endless plotting. “It has been a long time since I destroyed anything valuable or threatened the lives of innocent people.”
   “You’re right; you are slipping.”
   “And she has been a lot nicer to me ever since I wrote that opera.”
   Bender mulled on that for a moment. “Well… I’d be worried about that if I was you,” he said. “She’s at that age when human females start getting desperate for offspring. I say she’s sizing you up as a free source of genetic material, buddy. Run for the hills.”
   “I don’t think that’s…” Fry trailed off as his eyes were drawn to the long-range scanner. For a moment a contact had registered at the edge of scanning range. It was weak and ill-defined, and on the next pass it had disappeared.
   “Huh…” He called up the command routines for the high-powered radar array and fired a burst into the sector where the contact had been. Briefly the object returned to the screen, before becoming scattered and then vanishing altogether. It had been closer that time, but the ship’s computer hadn’t been able to lock onto it or produce identification.
   “Bender, can you take a look out of the port… err… starboard side window?”
   “No dice, meatbag, I’ve taken the week off.”
   “But…”
   “No.”
   “It’s a…”
   “No.”
   “Could you just…”
   “No.”
   “Bender’s great.”
   “No…. arrr!” Bender marched away. And Fry was forced to resort to the other person on the bridge.
   “Zoidberg, can you go and watch out the starboard window,” he said reluctantly. “Tell me if you see anything unusual while I try to get a fix on this…”
   “Hurray! I’m useful!” The good doctor leapt up from the couch and ran to press his face against the reinforced plexiglass. “I see nothing, my friend.”
   “Keep looking, I think there’s something out there, but it keeps vanishing…” Fry focused on the console, directing electromagnetic scans in a dozen different frequencies across the same vector. Should I call Leela? He wondered… It doesn’t seem like a big deal… probably just a chunk of comet debris. And if I wake her over something that trivial she might not think I’m competent any more…
   “Anything, Zoidberg?”
   “Nothing yet, but it’s a great pleasure to work with you… oh wait!”
   “What?”
   “There is something!” the crustacean said, clicking his claws excitedly. “Something big and dark is passing in front of the stars. I don’t know what it is, but it has style – black is the new black, they’re saying.”
   “Oh hell…” He keyed the intercom for the Captain’s quarters and spoke apologetically into the microphone. “Leela, I’m sorry to wake you,” he said.
   “What’s wrong, Fry?” came the muted reply a few moments later.
   “We’ve got an object off to starboard. Scanner contact is wigging in and out so size and distance can’t be determined… seems like it might be a stealth ship or something.”
   “Unless it’s an equipment malfunction, you’re probably right,” Leela said, appearing beside him and making him jump. “Asteroids don’t tend to deflect scanner beams.”
   “Zoidberg confirmed visually,” Fry said, vacating the Captain’s chair and noting that Leela’s hair was untied, cascading past her shoulders like an amethyst waterfall.
   She took the helm and studied the scanner readout. A ghostly shape was picked up, its position and size seeming to change from one second to the next. “I think you’re right, red,” she said, her eye narrowing. “Whoever they are, they’re operating a sophisticated stealth system. I need you to send out a friendly hail on all frequencies – can you do that?”
   “No problem.” Fry dashed over to the communications console and manipulated the controls. “Broadcasting,” he said.
   “Hello new friends!” Zoidberg said, waving a claw at the dark frigate. Leela looked past the lobster and saw the area of shadow passing in front of the stars.
   “Any response?” she asked Fry.
   “Nothing,” he replied, feeling his stomach knot.
   “Damn it. They’re obviously after this stupid DOOP shipment. And now they know that we know they’re there.”
   “They what - what?” Fry frowned in confusion at that sentence.
   Leela shook her head. “We’re gonna break and run,” she said, keying the shipboard intercom. “All crew to battle-stations!”
   “Bender’s taking a week off,” Fry said.
   “He’s useless in a firefight anyway,” Leela muttered. “Fry, terrifyingly you’re actually our best marksman – you take the laser turret.”
   “A million quarters in the video arcade well spent!” Fry said, whipping out a quick salute before dashing off.
   Leela set her jaw and spooled the engines up to full power. Lets play, she thought.


PS - had to double-post there 'cause the section was too long.

 

Originally posted by Xanfor:
Hey, it's been more than four minutes! Where's the next update? I can't read fanfics under these conditions!

Continue, continue!

        

SILENCE! Agreed   

Love the story, love the pictures!

I'm not so sure about the purple/red thing, but it's starting to grow on me

Australian ay? well the word 'kilometre' was a dead giveaway there mate 
Good story, great pictures. Looking forward to more.

Fry watched a pair of blue energy pulses flare from the Xylogen ship and lance toward him. With the main engine out of commission, Leela wasn’t able to take evasive action, and the bolts slammed into the gunning turret. Fry threw an arm up to protect his head as sparks erupted around him – the laser cannon burst into flame, and the bubble canopy began to dissolve in a spiderweb of fine cracks.
   “Holy pepperoni!” he exclaimed, pushing himself back from the cannon mount. He let himself fall backwards through the access hatch, a blast of flame from the fried laser knocking his helmet off as he went. As he landed heavily on his back at the bottom of the ladder, the turret bubble exploded outwards into space, sucking a torrent of atmosphere with it. Fry was picked up and thrown around in the sudden tornado of escaping air, slamming into the bulkhead numerous times until the emergency pressure hatch closed over the severed turret fixture.
   “Oh man…” he muttered to himself as he lay dazed and bruised on the deck. “That was even worse than that time I slept in a clothesdryer…”
   As he lay there trying to gather his wits and stop his ears from popping, he became aware of a familiar thumping pair of boots. Leela’s face suddenly appeared above him, full of fear – her eye was wet with tears.
   “Oh God, Fry! FRY!?” She knelt down and lifted his head, noting the cuts and abrasions.
   “What’s wrong?” Fry asked stupidly, looking at her with concern.
   “The turret blew,” Leela choked, stifling a sob. “I thought you were in it… I thought...” She trailed off, suddenly feeling foolish and embarrassed.
   “Aww, hey…” Fry reached up and gently wiped a tear off her cheek. “It’s okay purple – a little explosive decompression never killed anyone important.”



   Leela chuckled in relief and wrapped her arms around him, hugging him tightly as if to make perfectly sure he was real. Ever since the incident with the bee sting, she’d had a near-phobic terror of losing Fry.
   Fry hugged her back, trying to ignore the pain from his various injuries. For a moment he forgot about their dire predicament and instead lost himself in the scent of her hair and the contours of her body pressed against him.
   Leela composed herself and helped him up, and they stood awkwardly in silence for a few moments.
   “So, are we boned?” Fry asked finally.
   “Somewhat,” Leela replied. “The engine’s out – one of the reactors fried and made a mess of the engineering deck, so we’re pretty-much immobile.”
   “My natural state.”
   “…I can coax a little delta-V from the docking thrusters, enough to make some slow manoeuvres, but that won’t do us any good. With a week and a full workshop at my disposal I might have been able to repair and reconfigure the quantum tunnelling servos to distribute even thrust on the remaining reactor, but as it stands the propulsion array is too far out of alignment to ignite for even a short burst without risk of graviton implosion.”
   Fry stared at her blankly. “Leela, I don’t know what you just said, but I do know that you’re the best Starship Captain in the galaxy, and if anyone can find a way out of a jam like this – it’s you.”
   “I wish that were true, Fry,” she said. “But right now, we’re not going anywhere.”
   “Now you see why I suggested we load up some oars.”
   They both looked around as Bender clumped up to him with his optic sensors narrowed.
   “What’s the big idea, skintubes?” he shouted, turning his head to show them the dart sticking out of it. “Can’t you be more gentle when you’re running from enemy gunships?”
   “Shut your hole, Rodriguez!” Leela snapped. “If you want to live to see tomorrow you’ll go down to the torpedo room and load up the two spares.”
   “Do it yourself!”
   Fry frowned at the robot. “Bender, you do realize we could all die any minute, right?” he said.
   “So?!” Bender snapped. “I’m not technically alive anyway. And I’ll be damned if I’m gonna waste the last minutes of my life trying not to die.”
   The ship lurched suddenly beneath their feet and an ominous vibration washed over them.
   “Oh no… they have us in a tractor beam,” Leela groaned.
   “Arrr!” Bender threw up his manipulator arms. “Fine! I’ll go and load the stupid torpedoes into the stupid torpedo stupid tubes! But I hate you both.”
   As the robot stalked off, Fry took Leela by the shoulders.
   “Leela, you go down to the engine room and see if there’s anything you can do down there,” he said. “I know you think it’s hopeless, but just take a look and maybe something will come to you. I’ll take the helm – and when Bender’s done with those torpedoes I’ll give our friends a nice surprise and maybe buy you some more time.”
   Leela was taken aback by the sudden assertive turn. Fry had become a lot more confident and adept in the past year. She liked it… a lot.
   “Fry, you know I’m supposed to be the Captain,” she said wryly.
   “Well, er…”
   “Alright, I’ll take a look.” She nodded and moved away.
   Fry jogged into the bridge to find Zoidberg running back and fourth whooping in terror and Hermes frantically shredding all of his documents. A shadow had fallen over the ship, and glancing out the side window Fry could see that it was the bulk of the enemy frigate filling the view and drawing closer.
   “Hermes, I think you ought to break open the ship’s armoury,” Fry said, seating himself in the Captain’s chair.
   “Oh my great zombie God,” the Bureaucrat moaned, hurrying off.
   “Fry! Oh Fry!” Zoidberg scuttled over and grabbed Fry’s jacket with his pincers. “You have a plan, don’t you, my good friend?! Fry will save us all!”
   “Well actually, I don’t really have a clue,” Fry confessed, shrugging.
   “WHAT?! You’re a useless milk-sucking vertebrate!”
   “Yeah, that’s me alright.”
The communications console chimed a warning note, and suddenly the viewscreen was filled with an image that made Fry’s bowels clench. The alien commander was the bastard child of a thousand horror movies – a complex mass of hooks and blades, organic and cybernetic, topped by a multi-faceted head with three blood-red eyes.
   “Hi,” Fry said, waving hesitantly at the viewer.
   Zoidberg fainted.

$39.95 for the rest of the story.
Mwuhahaha

Okay.
Heh. I don't know if I'll get another post done by today, but tomorrow definately.

 

Originally posted by coldangel_1:
 Might be a bit of my Australian heritage coming through...

I'm Australian too! But I've never come across people calling others by their hair colour.

But awesome to find another Aussie!

Ooooh and I love the story! Good cliffhanger! Great pictures too!

 

Originally posted by Cyberphobia:
  I'm Australian too! But I've never come across people calling others by their hair colour.

But awesome to find another Aussie!

Ooooh and I love the story! Good cliffhanger! Great pictures too!

Well we call redheads 'blue'... huhh... well, I'll just make up my own national identity.   
Thanks for the kind words.

LOVIN the story, Frickin execellent, more please!

May I recommed a good doctor, 

Not unless you don't like life 

Yeah.... I do that too, mostly screeching brakes, but you get the idea

Ahhhh, too cute

Even tough guys can be sensitive, it's nothing to be ashamed of.

YAY, someone with a balence of shippy and blood lust!

Don't worry Xanfor, your secret's safe, for a price...*evil grin*

"You meatbags choose a time like this to reproduce!?" LOL

Awesome update! Can't wait for the next bit!

Ahhh, you are a softy at heart arn't you? I love the sypathetic Bender. I love it, more please

Sympathetic Bender embarassed about his feelings is a rather unsubtle joke on myself writing smulch.